19
I answered and said, "Each made a foolish plan, for the land has been assigned to the forest, and the locale of the sea a place to carry its waves."
20
He answered me and said, "You have judged rightly, but why have you not judged so in your own case?
21
For as the land has been assigned to the forest and the sea to its waves, so also those who inhabit the earth can understand only what is on the earth, and he who is above the heavens can understand what is above the height of the heavens."
22
Then I answered and said, "I implore you, my lord, why have I been endowed with the power of understanding?
23
For I did not wish to inquire about the ways above, but about those things that we daily experience: why Israel has been given over to the Gentiles in disgrace; why the people whom you loved has been given over to godless tribes, and the law of our ancestors has been brought to destruction and the written covenants no longer exist.
24
We pass from the world like locusts, and our life is like a mist, and we are not worthy to obtain mercy.
25
But what will he do for his name that is invoked over us? It is about these things that I have asked."
26
He answered me and said, "If you are alive, you will see, and if you live long, you will often marvel, because the age is hurrying swiftly to its end.
27
It will not be able to bring the things that have been promised to the righteous in their appointed times, because this age is full of sadness and infirmities.
28
For the evil about which you ask me has been sown, but the harvest of it has not yet come.
29
If therefore that which has been sown is not reaped, and if the place where the evil has been sown does not pass away, the field where the good has been sown will not come.